Fake Actions, True Emotions
by amaideninimagination
Summary: Chloe Bourgeois had NOT expected Nathanael Kurtzberg to actually agree to be her fake boyfriend. Now, she only has to convince her mother that it is real. But what she doesn't understand is that she can't possibly do that without convincing herself first! Meanwhile Nathanael wondered if their relationship was still fake or was it getting more real and real by the minute?
1. Ch.1

Ch.1

"By the way, I don't care."

"Excuse me? What do you mean you don't care?" Chloe huffed, crossed her arms and pouted in the usual 'Chloe way'.

Nathanael sighed, put down his pencil and turned to face her. "It means that I don't care how outrageous it was of her to ask that of you or what not. Just get to the point already!"

"Hey! I am trying to ask a favour here! It's hard okay!"

"Alright, just get on with it."

Chloe took a deep breath to calm her nerves. This was way more nerve wracking than she thought it would be! And she doubted that Nathanael would actually say yes and agree to it but it was a chance she was willing to take as she did not know any other boy who could live up to her mother's expectations. Well, there was Adrien but he was currently in a relationship with Marinette Dupain-Cheng and believe it or not, Chloe actually felt happy for her best friend.

"Okay! Here goes nothing! Or everything? No, no panicking, alright girl c'mon! Oh God! Now I'm rambling, will you be my fake boyfriend in front of my mother, Please?"

"What?"

"Oh God! I can't believe I said that!"

"Me neither."

Nathanael sighed, again, as he furrowed his brow in thought while Chloe gave him a look which said that his comment wasn't helping. "But seriously I wasn't expecting you of all people to ask me to be their fake boyfriend as we don't even say 'Hello' when we pass each other."

"Hey! I smile at you every time."

"Yeah, yeah I noticed. And my friends kept asking too that why I was being given looks by Chloe Bourgeois." Nathanael had now started fidgeting with his pencil, looking at Chloe for any hints of deceit in her. But he didn't think she would do something so low like asking him to pretend to be her boyfriend as a joke. No, Chloe Bourgeois had changed since school. She had become much nicer and had apologised personally to everyone too, including him. The biggest change of all was that she and Marinette were actually friends. That was a shocker to everyone. She was still best friends with Sabrina though and she had gotten much closer to Adrien too. Well, the past was history now and she had amended all her mistakes. None held a grudge against her now. Perhaps a very few who had no mercy but most of it was forgotten for the best. People had moved on and so had Chloe.

"Yeah, because I thought we were friends. We are friends, aren't we?"

There was a pause, a slight hesitation, before Nathanael finally spoke up, "Yeah, we are".

"Okay, I am glad we got that out of the way. Now, your answer?"

"Hmmm, let's see... What do I get out of it?"

"What do you want?"

"I don't know yet. You can't just suddenly ask me. Well, I'll think about it and as long as you agree to do what I want later too, then okay I can think about it."

"As long as it's not weird or out of morale or something you know, I can do it."

"Okay..."

"So is it a yes?"

"Let me think about it for a day. I'll let you know tomorrow."

"Alright, thank you."

"I've not said yes yet"

"At least you're considering it. That's enough of a reason for me to say thank you, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is. Now please go, I have a due date and want to finish this project. And I'm already running behind schedule as somebody wasted half an hour in rambling."

"Oh! I'm sorry I'll leave you to it now. Bye."

"Bye"

And as the door to his dorm closed, Nathanael pondered over one question which he was desperate to ask. Why him? It wasn't as if they were good enough of friends except a few hand waves so why would she want him, out of all the boys she could choose from, to be her boyfriend. Fake boyfriend at that. Well, he could always ask tomorrow.

Now, the question was, should he accept?


	2. Ch 2

Ch. 2

Audrey Bourgeois was not an easy person to please. That was an understatement. She was the most rude, cruel, awful, bad-mouthed, insensitive person one could ever meet. Worst of all, she failed to be a mother. She didn't care one bit for her daughter and so to please her mother, Chloe had gone to great lengths when she was younger but one would think that would have changed now. No, Chloe was still trying her best to meet her mother's expectations and when she had said that it was a shame Chloe didn't have a boyfriend yet unlike other girls, it was natural of her to get angry and retort that she, in fact, already had one. Thus, Chloe found herself in this situation.

She hadn't slept at all last night and even now, she kept worrying what would happen if Nathanael declined. Who else could she ask? Who else was good enough? Who else was she comfortable to pretend with? Several questions swirled in her mind and she was unable to concentrate on any of her classes, being called out by two teachers in the past three lectures.

When break came around, Sabrina advised her that there was no point in worrying and so she tried to relax a little. Sabrina's presence helped her calm down too. Oh! The wait was killing her! Why couldn't he just answer quickly? Was he going to make her wait till night or what? Ugh! It was getting frustrating now! And amongst these thoughts, the rest of the school hour did not past quick enough for her. At least she had something to focus on during lectures but now, seeing as she was free, she couldn't help but think about him again. She was getting anxious and feared that he wouldn't accept. As soon as those thoughts began again, there was a knock at the door. There stood Nathanael with his fists clenched and a bag hanging loosely around his shoulders.

* * *

Nathanael thought hard. And in spite of thinking hard he hadn't come to a conclusion yet. The only thing keeping him awake and away from thinking again was an extra doze of caffeine. He couldn't think on this anymore, he needed advice. And fast cause the day was about to come to an end and he was yet to provide an answer to Chloe. So he picked up his phone, called the only person he knew who would be willing to meet on such short notice. As the ringing stopped and a quirky voice spoke up, "Yo! What's up?"

"Can we meet up?"

"Sure!"

When Nathanael reached the cafe, the girl was already sitting there sipping a soda.

"So... Why the sudden urge to meet up, Nath?"

"I want your advice"

"Ooh!"

"So there's this girl—"

"A girl, huh?"

"Listen first! So she asked me to be her boyfriend..."

"That's great Nath!"

"Just to convince her mother that we are dating. Nothing else."

"So basically she asked you to be her fake boyfriend?"

"Yeah, what should I do?"

"What do you wanna do?"

"I don't know"

"You know, mostly fake relationships usually end up in a real one. As it is you don't have a love life and you don't even have a crush so I say you should go for it. That is unless you haven't told me that you like someone?"

"No, I don't. You know that you'd be the first to know if I did, right?"

"Yeah, you better tell me first!"

The duo turned silent then as Nathanael processed what his best friend had said. She was right,he didn't have a love life. Maybe this could be a substitute for that? He would be happier to have company too. And Chloe wasn't bad to be around, just difficult. Maybe it was a win-win situation. He still had anything he could get anytime. After all, Chloe had agreed to it. He would think about that later though. His head was killing him then and he had to get another coffee. Yes, better get this situation out of his list fast.

"Who's the girl anyway?"

"I've decided. Thanks, I'll get going now."

"Wait! You didn't answer me! What did you decide?" she shouted across the room as Nath was walking away.

"You'll get to know on every social media tomorrow, Alix!" Nathanael shouted back as he waved and finally left.

"Wait, so the girl's this popular and chose Nath? I don't get her, but you're gonna pay for this Nath!"

And so, a raged Alix was added to the list of those who were curiously waiting for tomorrow. (The ones already on the list were Chloe and Sabrina)

* * *

When Nathanael reached her dorm in the university, he was getting nervous again. He clenched his fists tight and knocked.

"So, what do I have to do, Chloe?"


	3. Chapter 3

Ch. 3

It had been two days….. two days since Nathaniel agreed to Chloe, two days since the media blew up over their relationship, two day since they got to know each other better, and he still couldn't believe it. No, not the fact that Chloe Bourgeois had asked him to be her fake boyfriend. No, that was believable. But the fact that she was an otaku was not at all believable. At first, it had taken a while for Nathaniel's head to process that information but after it had settled in his mind, he had teased her mercilessly for it. Even to the extent that Chloe had to threaten to ruin his painting to get him to stop. Once he had stopped, he had been quiet for a minute or two and then he was roaring with laughter. Again. And again. Oh man! Even just thinking about it made him crack up!

But, anyways, back to the problem at hand. Currently, Chloe and Nathaniel were sitting in his dorm room, thinking of all the possibilities about how the dinner would end. You see, tomorrow night they had dinner scheduled with Audrey Bourgeois and honestly, Nathaniel didn't know how to feel about that. Chloe had already freaked out about it and he was sure she would freak out again, but Nathaniel could handle it. And now Chloe came up with another possibility of it ending in a disaster. God knows how many theories she had already shared with Nathaniel and now he was getting irritated by it. That woman does not stop! He opened his mouth, told her to calm down again (let me remind you that he has heard like- ten, or how many was it again? Never mind – theories of failures by now) and that was when he figured it out.

Earlier, Nathaniel didn't know what effect he had on Chloe. But now, now it was clear as a day. When she would freak out and start mumbling along the lines of she was screwed, even a quick 'calm down, it'll be okay' from him would immediately mellow her down. She became so reassured by it that he thought she had a crush on him or something like that. That is, only until she would start mumbling again. But that wasn't possible, was it? No, one couldn't possibly predict anything with Chloe and everything could be possible. He never knew. But all this thinking about crushes was giving him a headache. He didn't want to think about it anymore, he wanted to just forget it and he did just that.

He forgot it.

Little did he know that it would become one of the greatest shocks of his life.

Chloe Bourgeois had a tendency to freak out. But it wasn't extreme, no, just little freak out sessions. Sabrina had always pointed out when she was freaking out yet she never realized that she did, in fact, freak out. It was on rare occasions though, or so she thought. It was more frequent than Chloe would like to admit so she dismissed it like nothing at first. Then, it started getting more noticeable. That was when she first had her panic attack ( Chloe liked to call it that for more effect but it wasn't a full blown attack or anything even remotely close to it. It was just a teenager throwing a fit. Nonetheless it was still her first ever freak out that lasted long, creating an impact on her.) That was when she realized that she needed calming down by someone close to her. Sabrina had realized that long back, that was the reason she rushed to Chloe when she had one of her 'panic attacks'. Then, Chloe started therapy. That didn't work out so she started research. From that, she started noting down facts. Then, she started working on those facts and started arguing against those facts. She was good at that. She liked that. It made her feel responsible somehow. And she always wanted to be good enough, responsible enough for her mother to love her. That's why she chose to become a lawyer and started pursuing its study. It was a simple enough of an explanation for her choice. But no, her mother didn't even care enough to ask for an explanation. In fact, she didn't even care for her career choice. So now she was desperate. Desperate to do anything to make her at least love her a little.

Therefore, she was freaking out over a dinner. Not any dinner, THE dinner.

For once, at least, she was allowed to freak out.


End file.
